08.29.17: Nordstrom expands 'reserve online, try in store' service

An episode of eCommerce Minute

The eCommerce Minute is your daily dose of eCommerce, tech and retail news, with your hosts Bart Mroz and John Suder. The show is a production of SUMO Heavy, an eCommerce consulting firm with offices in Brooklyn, NY, and Philadelphia.

A recent report by Bloomberg says the retailer will be releasing a tablet device in the near future. The tablet will be marketed under Walmart's ONN brand.
The report states that the tablet is being manufactured by a supplier in China and will run on Android. The target audience for the device is children.

The Wally Shop is a Brooklyn, New York-based startup that bills itself as a zero-waste grocery store.
It is an eco-friendly way to get your groceries. When you order, a bike courier will head to a farmer’s market or food co-op and deliver it to you. This cuts down on carbon emissions. All of the packaging that is used is recyclable, which cuts down on trash.

The first store is set for Los Angeles in the fall of 2019 and the company has reportedly signed at least two additional locations for 2020 openings. It is negotiating to open stores in San Francisco, Seattle, and Philadelphia. The Journal also reports Amazon is exploring buying regional grocery chains to accelerate its growth.
Unlike Whole Foods, the new grocery chain is expected to be more like a traditional supermarket. \Whole Foods targets higher-end shoppers and good typically cost more. A new grocery chain may target more price-sensitive shoppers.

Airbnb is buying HotelTonight, the hotel-booking application that lets travelers arrange last-minute accommodations.
The financial terms weren’t disclosed, but sources told Axios the homeshare giant paid close to Hotel Tonight’s last private valuation of about $463m. This would make it Airbnb’s largest acquisition ever.
HotelTonight partners with hotels to offer un-sold rooms, catering to business travelers or those looking to make last-minute arrangements.

Amazon has stopped selling the Dash button, although - if you’ve got one already - it will still work.
The idea behind the button was to make it really simple to buy replacement products for goods when you’re running low. It also meant a direct pipeline to brands and sellers, which effectively removed the temptation to shop for lower prices.
Amazon created more than 300 Dash buttons for various products. Not only did they provide a fast way to re-order things, they also served as brand advertising for products when placed in homes.

A super-sized episode: Co-hosts John Suder and Bart Mroz recap Shoptalk 2019, the huge retail show held yearly in Las Vegas.
Since 2015, Shoptalk has been widely regarded as retail’s best show with 8,000+ attendees, including more than 750 CEOs, and the world's best speaker lineup and agenda.

Martha Stewart is the latest celebrity to lend her name to line of CBD-infused products. CNBC reports that Stewart has signed on as an adviser to Canopy Growth, one of the largest marijuana producers in the world, to develop a line of CBD products for animals.

Once approved, brands that join Project Zero will be able to directly flag and remove counterfeit listings of their products from Amazon on their own.
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Tide Cleaners will offer several laundry services, including 24/7 drop boxes located in high rise buildings, offices, and storefronts. The service lets customers pre-pay for laundry and pick up the clean clothes once the app notifies them they’re ready.
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PayCode allows people to shop and buy from Amazon’s online store and then pay for their purchases at local Western Union locations.
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The technology allows shoppers to use their smartphones to scan products on grocery shelves and helps pinpoint items that help meet their dietary needs.
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A group of former company executives have joined together to create a new company, called Tru Kids.
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Sensors and cameras will scan faces and estimate age and gender to deliver targeted messages.
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There is no way for sellers to apply to the program; instead, Target explains that each partner is “carefully selected” and then invited into the program.
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The concept reduces floor space for retail and seasonal items and expands space for health care and wellness.
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The luxury cannabis lifestyle shop, in its Beverly Hills flagship store, makes it the first major retailer to open a legal cannabis department.
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LinkedIn Live will allow individuals or organizations to broadcast real-time video to LinkedIn Groups or to the entire LinkedIn platform.
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Attendees will be able to conveniently order items like sunscreen, hats, and phone chargers and have shipped to the lockers onsite at the festival.
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The world’s largest furniture retailer is doing a proof of concept test starting in its home base of Switzerland by leasing office furniture.
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According to a new patent filing, your Amazon package could be riding on a nearby bus, waiting for your pickup.
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Using Apple’s ARKit and Face ID technology, the app can show users what glasses would look like by rendering them in 3D and overlaying them on top of your face.
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Ahrendts had served in the role at Apple for five years. Executive Director Deirdre O'Brien will assume Ahrendt's role.
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Amazon Live will feature hosts demonstrating products that are for sale on the platform.
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The coffee is a medium-dark whole-bean blend with “flavor notes of cherry and cocoa.” Each 8 oz. cup contains 7 mg. of hemp-derived CDB.
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Zipsell is a self-hosted platform that allows you to set up a fully-functional online store for selling digital products.
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The company is using a virtual simulation video game called “Spark City” to train its employees. The game puts employees in charge of a fictional dry grocery department and challenges them with making it run efficiently.
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Called WW Studio, Kohl’s will launch an 1,800 square foot studio within its store and offer wellness workshops. Kohl’s will also begin selling the WW Healthy Kitchen products, branded kitchenware, and cookware later this year.
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Dream Drive is a suite of apps for both driver and passenger, where users can accumulate points for vouchers for discounts.
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Walmart calls it “smart accessories for an untethered world.” It’s a private level line of tech accessories under the brand name “Motile.”
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Loop is a circular shopping platform that transforms the packaging of your everyday essentials from single-use disposable to durable, feature-packed designs.
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Parcel Guard is an anti-theft mailbox that can only be accessed by your delivery person and you.
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Pensa Systems has developed a drone that can fly around a store and examine items on shelves and in coolers.
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Liquid Death is Austrian mountain water sold in cans. Mike Cessario, a West Coast agency creative, created the brand last year as a side project.
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According to the filing and claims, it’s “an example system for capturing and analyzing sounds in a shopping facility.”
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The new service will allow their customers to receive certain products on a schedule - weekly, monthly, twice a year, or any timeline of their choosing.
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Those with higher scores get special perks for things like waived banking fees, elimination of deposits on rentals, and hotel bookings. WeChat Pay Points analyzes spending behavior and social media connections to formulate a credit score for even those without established financial history.
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The card, which is free to obtain and use, will allow Square connected businesses to withdraw and spend the money brought in via Square payments.
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Axios reports the online giant has partnered with brands including Folgers and Maybelline to send free samples directly to your home. The companies will target Amazon Prime subscribers based on the company’s massive collection of personal data on its users, including things like browsing, order, and engagement history.
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WeWork recently announced a $32 million investment in Laird Superfood, started by surf star Laird Hamilton.
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This new feature would let users do their own live videos to show products and do live demos.
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The Arby's subscription box unveiled at the announcement contained a store serving tray, an Arby's hat, a bacon scarf, and some Arby's temporary tattoos.
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Weebly Photo Studio lets you send products to Weebly to have the items professionally photographed. The service costs $75 per item.
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The advanced technology records microscopic differences in manufactured products then houses those recorded differences as "product fingerprints".
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The Snackbots are outdoor, self-driving robots on wheels making its way around college campuses delivering snacks and soft drinks.
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That’s what some folks at Amazon have dubbed products they are offering that sell for less than what it costs to buy and deliver.
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Users will be able to bypass the lines by letting a biometric kiosk scan their face when they’re ready to leave the rental car lot.
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The social media giant is in talks with HBO, Showtime, and Starz about adding streaming video. Facebook would offer subscriptions to these channels which users would watch within the Facebook platform.
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Their "Clever Cups" are reusable cups that include a contactless payment chip. Instead of cups being used for single-usage, the cups are for continuous use.
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The Season Three premiere of the eCommerce Minute.
In this super-sized episode John and Bart discuss the holiday break, take care of some podcast announcements and make their predictions for 2019.
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On this super-sized episode, Bart and John take a fond look back at some of the episodes from 2018 and look ahead to the trends and stories for 2019.
The eCommerce Minute will return with new episodes in January.

District showcases items from about 140 retailers and features a dynamic real-time feed that presents shoppers with trending products tailored to each user based on past actions, as well as information shared with the app.

This holiday season, eBay is following Amazons lead and releasing a holiday toy catalog. The online retailer is putting out a Toy Book with the hottest gifts this year, as well as listings for rare and retro playthings from your childhood.

When it was all said and done, the total for this year was a staggering $30.8 Billion. That number topped the $25.3 billion record set in 2017 and shows a nearly 27 percent year-on-year rise. This is a huge number, of course, but smaller than the 39 percent year-on-year growth recorded in 2017.

Jet.com's newly launched City Grocery offering is now selling Blue Apron meal kits, featuring menu offerings exclusive to Jet customers. This is the first time they've been available through an online retailer.

Online marketplace eBay has filed a complaint in California Superior Court alleging that Amazon "perpetuated a scheme to infiltrate and exploit eBay's internal member email system" in order to "recruit high-value eBay sellers to Amazon." eBay is demanding a jury trial for the suit.

The coworking giant is partnering with designer rental service Rent the Runway. Rent the Runway is staging 15 drop-off points at locations in New York, San Fransisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Miami.

Terminal is an all-in-one device that can process payments over Wi-Fi and print out receipts. The Terminal accepts chip cards inserted at the front, mag-stripe cards swiped along the edge, and the tap of a smartphone/smartwatch to make a mobile payment.

Walmart wants to know if its shoppers are stressed out. That's the idea behind a patent application for a biometric feedback shopping cart handle was recently published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Lolli is a startup that wants you to earn bitcoin as you shop. Lolli's mission: Put cryptocurrencies like bitcoin into the hands of consumers, risk-free.
Lolli offers a browser extension for Chrome and Safari that so far pairs with more than 600 retailers, like Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Lucky Brand, Home Depot, Hotels.com, Jet.com, SeatGeek ,Walmart, Best Buy and ClassPass.

A real-life recreation of the iconic Kwik-E-Mart convenience store from the series has just opened in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The store was designed with the same look and feel from the animated series, and the store's creators said four years of planning went into the attraction.

The surfboard was designed in Tesla's design studios “in collaboration with Lost Surfboards and Matt “Mayhem” Biolos.” According to the product description, the board features a finish similar to the company's cars, and a top that's reinforced with carbon fiber.

Facebook is diving deeper into eCommerce, and soon there's one more thing you'll be able to buy: Movie Tickets. Starting soon, Facebook users will see a new tab on the pages called Movies. The Movies page will give users options to purchase movie tickets through AMC, Fandango, or Atom Tickets.

The showroom features photo galleries and lets potential car buyers view and compare different Hyundai models. The showroom includes price comparisons, reviews, vehicle details, test drive bookings, the ability to check dealership inventories and other Shopper Assurance elements through Amazon Vehicles, the automaker said in a news release.

The Swedish retailer Ikea announced a new collaborative line of products called SPANST. The collection features furniture and accessories but also streetwear-styled clothing in collaboration with Chris Stamp, the LA-based fashion designer.

Chinese eCommerce giant JD.com pulled in $24.6B during their annual 618 Shopping Festival, held this year June 2 to the 18th. That number set a new record for the festival, with a whopping 37% increase over last years festival.

Macy's has announced its partnering with electronics discovery store b8ta to expand it's Market @Macy's pop-up shops within Macy's stores. Part of the deal includes Macy's taking a minority stake in b8ta, which also helps brands build out physical stores.

Gravy is a new app that combines gaming, shopping, and fundraising in one app. It's self-described as 'the first shopping game show you play on your phone'.
Each night at 8:30 pm, Gravy live streams a show that gives audiences the chance to compete for discounts on new, innovative products and win cash prizes, all while raising money for charity.

Eleven James, often referred to as 'The Netflix for Watches' is an online subscription rental service for luxury watches. Founded in 2013, it offers curated watch collections to both men and women for a flat monthly subscription.

UPS has teamed up with electric vehicle manufacturer Arrival to roll out a "pilot fleet" of electric delivery vehicles in London and Paris. The new light-weight EVs have zero tailpipe emissions, 150-mile battery range, and advanced safety features.

Amazon's 'Pay' payment system has been struggling to gain large-scale adoption. So the commerce giant has decided to pass along the discounts they get on credit card fees along to retailers if they agree to implement the payment service.

For the first weekend of the annual Coachella Music Festival in Indio, California, Amex created a shoppable AR component in the Coachella app. The AR experience allowed cardholders to buy select merchandise using the Coachella app's AR camera anywhere on the festival grounds.

On a typical day at Amazon HQ in Seattle, employees share their space with as many as 6,000 of their four-legged friends. Every day is bring your dog to work day, a longstanding tradition at the e-commerce company.

Nordstrom is opening a men’s store in New York City that will operate 24 hours a day. The store will offer a variety of services at the store, including overnight in-store pickup, a self-service return kiosk, shoe shining, and “sneaker cleanings.”

Club retailer Boxed has launched a premium-perks program similar to Amazon Prime that provides free priority shipping, price-matching for competitors, and other benefits for subscribers. Boxed Up costs $49 a year after a free 30-day trial.

Most retailers are visible on social media, but might not be posting the messages customers really want.
This is according to The Social Shopping Report, a study conducted by Astound Commerce Insights.

Alibaba and Ford have unveiled a car vending machine in Guangzhou, China. The car facility came about as a result of a partnership signed two years ago between the eCommerce giant and the car maker.
The unstaffed, digital vending machine is called the Super Test-Drive Center and houses dozens of Ford vehicles in the multi-story building.

Retailer Macy's has created a unique Instagram hack to promote their Spring 2018 campaign. The campaign is called 'Remarkable You" that helps customers via Instagram put together outfits with help from influencers and Macy’s stylists, according to a news release.

According to a report by finder.com, Americans who drink alcohol regularly admit to purchasing while under the influence — an estimated 68 million people, drawn from their study of 2,000 American adults.

Shoppable social video is coming of age, and we can look to recent shopping events as proof that consumers are ready and willing to shop via social platforms. MikMak is one company that's making this a reality.

Many people last week reported hearing unprompted laughs from their smart speaker devices. The laughs were occurring randomly when nobody is using the device, or in response to a request to turn on or off lights.

UX analytics from ContentSquare analyzed over 29 million online shopping sessions across 14 retail accounts during the 3.5 month holiday to get a sense of what items people are abandoning in their carts - and why.

Poland’s lawmakers have approved a law that will phase out Sunday shopping by the year 2020, as the government pushes ahead with what it sees as a return to Roman Catholic values. The bill passed despite criticism that it may eliminate thousands of jobs.